This invention relates to weather seals or stripping for door and window openings as they are constructed in buildings and the like. Conventional door and window jambs vary in type, there being casement doors and windows, double hung windows, and sliding doors and windows etc. . . It is wooden door and window jambs with which this invention is particularly concerned, those that can be routed for the reception of a continuous seal installed to be effective between the jamb and the moveable door or window, it being a general object of this invention to provide a method and tooling for the installation of weather strip seals in existing as well as new construction. This invention is characterized by a routing tool and cutter and by a seal configuration adapted to wooden jambs, headers or sills, whether new or old. However, it is an object of this invention to provide a seal equally useful for metal construction.
Door and window openings are constructed of a frame comprised of spaced jambs extending upward from a sill and joined at the top by a lintel or header. In casement doors and windows there is door stop or slamming stop, which is a strip or projecting surface against which the door or window closes. And, it is this stop with which this invention is particulary concerned, since the stops of the header and sill join at right angular corners with the stops on the jambs, and heretofore it has been difficult if not impossible to rout into such corners for the installation of a contiuous weather strip seal. The face of the stop is right angularly related to the face of the jamb, and it is an object of this invention to rout a seal groove disposed in a plane to bisect the right angularly related planes of said two faces. Accordingly, a routing tool is provided with a guide that simultaneously follows the faces of the stop and jamb or header, and also provided with means to advance and to retract a specially shaped cutter into and out of working position that routs an undercut groove at a compound angle into and bisecting the corner established by said two faces.
Heretofore, seal strips with dart-shaped anchors have been installed under the aforementioned stop and jamb condition, by routing dovetail grooves receiving a seal anchor of complementary shape; however, these seals are not entirely secure. When dart-shaped anchors are employed, a routing cutter of that configuration has been used at a right angle to the woodwork. However, a dart-shaped cutter has been considered inoperative for reaching at a compound angle into the corners of right angularly related jambs and headers and sills with said stops. An objection is that angular disposition of a cutter axis creats an oval undercut heretofore considered to be inferior and requiring an over-lengthy cutter barrel that would render the cutter to be overly fragile. However, with the present invention a descrete compound angle of the cutter is advantageously utilized and coordinated with the barrel length of the cutter to create an adequate shoulder at each side of the undercut groove of dart-shape configuration. The opposite anchor shoulders are a developement of the inclined cutter's flutes that converge to a point so as to cut a dart-shaped groove.
Heretofore, the operational proceedure of removing material with a router involves the adjustment of the cutter relative to a guide, following which the cutter is revolved at high speed and the entire tool lowered into the work until the cutter reaches full depth as controlled by the previously set guide. However, with the involvement of right angularly related jamb and stop faces, and the like, entry of the cutter into the work to a precise stopped position becomes difficult; when reaching into the corners presented by right angularly related jambs, headers and sills. Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a precision stop for the entry of the cutter into these corners. A feature is the "pistol-grip" configuration of the cutter positioning means, by which the tool is comfortably manipulated with agility, whereby the front end of the guide advances the router cutter to a predetermined stopped position for termination of the cut made thereby.
It is an object of this invention to provide a routing tool, as hereinabove described, which is versatile and adapted to different door and window situations. That is, the moveable doors and windows may or may not be installed or removed, some are of the casement type while others are of the sliding type, and the construction to be improved with seals might be old or new. Accordingly, guide shoes are provided and which are formed to be complementary to the jamb and step configuration to be routed, an example of which is shown and described.
It is also an object of this invention to provide for angular advancement of the cutter and of the router axis, at a descrete compound angle selected for entry of the cutter into the corner established by the right angularly related jambs, headers and sills. The coumpound axis angle selected is substantially 60.degree., and is prefereably a 60.degree. angle which is complementary to the cutter configuration shown and herein described.